According to the financial report for the second quarter of 2024 released by the brand, its revenue in the second quarter was 31.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%, and the adjusted net profit was 1.5 billion yuan, achieving profitability for 7 consecutive quarters. It seems that Li Auto is currently in full bloom and the situation is very good, but there is a crisis hidden under the peace, that is, the pure electric sector is not as expected.
Recently, the latest news came out on the Internet, Li Auto applied for the ideal i trademark in July this year, which has now been made public and is currently in the state of registration application. According to this news, everyone has given their own speculations, which may represent the countdown to the launch of the ideal pure electric vehicle model.
As we all know, the range extender models of Li Auto are prefixed with L, such as L6, L7 and L8, etc., which we can understand as the L series. In Li Auto's previous planning, it named several of its pure electric SUVs M6, M7, etc., that is, the M series. This time, the M series will become the i series, and L+i is good to form the Li in the ideal Logo, which is very reasonable to think about.
Of course, no matter what the name is changed, this news means that Li Auto will accelerate the pace of launching its own pure electric models. However, under the background of the general slowdown in the growth rate of the pure electric market, plug-in hybrid and range extension have become the mainstream, and the performance of Li Auto's pure electric first work Ideal MEGA has pulled its hips, can Li Auto's pure electric road go smoothly?
According to the information released by the passenger association. In the past September, the wholesale sales of pure electric vehicles in mainland China were 723,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27.1% and a month-on-month increase of 22.2%. In comparison, the wholesale volume of plug-in hybrid and extended range in September was 394,000 units and 114,000 units, respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 102.2% and 68.4%, respectively. Although pure electric vehicles still account for the majority of the new energy market, their growth has slowed down significantly, while plug-in hybrids and range extensions have been soaring.
Li Auto started by relying on extended range, and when it comes to extended range models, consumers often think of Li Auto for the first time, and the brand can be said to have eaten up the market dividend. Now that the basic plate of extended range has been very solid, Li Auto wants to invest in the larger pure electric market, which is understandable, but unfortunately the brand's first step turned out to be quite unsatisfactory.
There is no doubt that the failure of the ideal MEGA has greatly affected the rhythm and confidence of the ideal car army to enter the pure electric market. Judging from the relevant sales data, the sales volume of the ideal MEGA reached 3229 units after it was officially launched in March this year, which was a good start, but the sales of the car in the following month will quickly fall back to 1145 units, and then in May ~ September and July, the sales data has been maintained in triple digits. According to the plan, the ideal MEGA should become a new species with a stable monthly sales of 8,000 units, and under the leadership of the car, the ideal electric family this year will harvest an annual sales figure of more than 150,000 units. For a model with high hopes, the sales performance of the ideal MEGA is indeed quite stretched.
Li Xiang and Li Auto were caught off guard by the defeat of Ideal MEGA, which also triggered a series of chain reactions. First of all, it is difficult to recover the cost of Ideal MEGA's R&D and marketing investment in the early stage, although Li Auto stopped losses in time, but it still led to a sharp decline in Li Auto's profits in the first quarter of this year, which in turn affected the entire brand's stock. At the same time, Li Auto's Li M7, M8 and M9, which were originally planned to be launched this year, were also forced to postpone the launch date to the first half of next year, and the pure electric plan was shelved.
Personally, I think that there are many reasons for the failure of Ideal MEGA, such as styling design, pricing, etc., but the most essential reason is that Ideal Auto mistakenly confused the business ideas of Ideal MEGA. Ideal MEGA is the first pure electric work of Ideal Auto, itself is in the commercial verification period, is a process from 0 to 1, but Ideal Auto treats it as a period of rapid development, although the early investment is huge, the momentum is very strong, but the car can not have a strong business potential as soon as it is listed like the Ideal L series. For the strategic rhythm, the defeat that led to the ideal MEGA was already doomed.
Uncle Che concluded
In general, Li Auto, which has already made a big mistake in the pure electric track, still insists on launching pure electric models next year, and this application for the i trademark is the preliminary preparation for this action. Uncle Che believes that the reason why Li Auto is so persistent is that he sees the hidden crisis under the good situation. After the initial period of rapid growth, the ideal car has entered the growth bottleneck, and if it wants to break through, it must find the second growth curve. This is also an important reason why so many car companies are tossing and turning in their own unexplored fields or areas that they are not good at. There is nothing wrong with the ideal direction and action, but it should be noted that the follow-up should focus on users rather than competition, focus on value rather than desire, return to the user value and marketing efficiency that you are good at, and do not follow the old path of ideal MEGA.